A literature database is a collection of literary works, such as papers, articles, books, etc. searchable by users for retrieval of information of interest to the users. Some literary databases are general in nature and contain literary works on a variety of subjects, while others are specific to a particular subject or to subjects related to a particular field. A medical literature database, for example, is a collection of literary works pertaining to the medical field, such as medical journal articles, medical studies, and the like. Medical databases are utilized, for example, by physicians or other medical personnel to retrieve literary works that may assist medical personnel in diagnosing and/or treating patients. As another example, medical databases may also be utilized as learning tools for medical students, medical patients, or people in general interested in obtaining information about a particular medical condition or on any other subject related to the medical field.
To search a literature database, a user generally enters a query, which may be a word or a phrase that describes the subject or subjects of interest to the user, and the query may then be used to search the database to obtain from the database materials relevant to the query. Literature databases in general, and medical literature databases in particular, have become widely available for access by users worldwide. For example, users may be able to access a literature database by utilizing an on-line application that allows the user to enter a query into a webpage and to receive search results obtained based on the query via the internet. Thus, anyone with access to the internet may be able to search the database and to utilize materials obtained from the database. As a result, such databases are often utilized by users who are not native speaker of the language of literature contained in the databases. It is beneficial, therefore, to includes translation capabilities in a database to allow foreign language users to enter queries for searching the database and to translate the queries into the language of literature contained in the database.